Improvement in india-rubber shoes



@w M JWM@ Mfm N0.120,252, Patentedoct. 24,1811.

FFICE.

LEWIS ELLIOTT, JR., OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO L. OANDEE & OO., OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN INDIA-RUBBER SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 120,252, dated October 24, 1871.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, LEwIs ELLIOTT, Jr., of New Haven, in the State of Connecticut, have invented and made a new and useful Improvement in India-Rubber Shoes; and the following is declared to be a correct description thereof.

India-rubber shoes have heretofore been made with an elastic lining of a netted or similar fabric, the surface of the shoe being of India rubber, and hence the front of the shoe was elastic. In other instances the lining of elastic fabric has been employed with a nonelastic surface of felt or woven material, the two thicknesses being united by an intervening sheet of India rubber. In this case, however, the upper part of the shoe is not elastic, and straps or separate pieces of elastic have to be employed to secure the shoe.

My invention is made for producing a shoe having an elastic upper, and a surface resembling cloth or prunella, so that the shoe mayv come up around the instep more or less and be sufficiently elastic to be drawn on or off with ease. shoe, hence, possesses all the features of elasticity and resistance to moisture Without the heavy and objectionable appearance of ordinary rubber shoes. I make use of an elastic knitted fabric for the lining of the upper of the shoe, and I attach the same to a second thickness of elastic knitted fabric, either by India-rubber cement or by the cement and an intervening sheet of India rubber. The sole of the shoe, the foxing, and binding are to be of any usual character.

In the drawing I have represented a shoe longitudinally in section, the elastic knitted fabric a forming the lining, and the elastic knitted fabric b the outside of the upper, the two being united by elastic material, as aforesaid, so that the rubber shoe can stretch across the front part of the upper when the shoe is drawn on or o. The binding around the upper part of the This shoe at d is to be elastic. The foxing at e is of greater or less width, and the sheet of rubber forming the same may be outside the lower edge of the fabric b or beneath the same, according to the convenience or discretion of the Workman. If desired to make a heavy shoe there may be more than two thicknesses of the elastic knitted fabric forming the elastic upper. One side of each ofthe elastic fabrics is to be coated with rubber, as usual, and the two rubber surfaces are brought together.

I do not claim two thicknesses of elastic material partially united by intervening strips of rubber or Va sheet of perforated rubber. Neither do I claim two thicknesses of woven material put together so as to be elastic in one direction, as a fabric of this kind has been made for the gores` of leather shoes 5 but the same is not adapted to the manufacture of the uppers of rubber shoes, because the elasticity would only be in one direction, whereas by the use of the two thicknesses of knitted material that is elastic in all directions the sides of the shoe become elastic as well as the uppers. I am also aware that in O. Bedells English patent, February 9, 1844, mention is made of two knitted fabrics united by India rubber.

I claim as my invention- An India-rubber shoe made with knitted elastic uppers of the character specied, an elastic binding to the edge of the same, and India-rubber foxing between such elastic uppers and the sole, the same forming a new article of manufacture.

Witnesses: I"

WM. T. BERTLETT,

O. REAsE. (16) 

